(Left to right) Andrew Indeck, Barry Levin and Joe Dougherty. elected a New Jersey partner Having a non-headquarters-based leader is "quite common actually. Most firms that are growing really don't declare themselves as having a headquarters in one place anymore," Hildebrandt said. While it's more common in Big Law than at midsize firms, it's become increasingly frequent in the last decade, he said. Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr |

'Something People Questioned'

elected its new chairman early this year At Saul Ewing, "I don't think there was resistance. It was more just the history of how our firm grew and evolved," Levin said. He pointed to 1998, when the firm's merger with Weinberg & Green made Baltimore its second-largest office. It may have been a different situation if Saul Ewing didn't have such a significant presence in Baltimore, he noted. "I think people were excited because it did show we were moving to a bigger, more national platform," he said. "It drives home that we're not just a Pittsburgh firm." "Partners that feel like they're in satellite offices often feel disconnected. … I think we've done a really good job of consciously not having a mother ship," Levin said. "It would be easier to go to the same office every day, but it would be less effective."